While surfing my archives I thought it might be useful to catalog all the memes I’ve answered in one place. Combined, I bet they reveal a lot about me! And if some aspect of my knitting life still remains a mystery after reading the links below, ask! Go ahead, ask in the comments! Maybe I’ll pick a few questions to answer à la Wendy ;).

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10 thoughts on “Meme catalog”

Ok, Grumperina, you are a linguist, according to your bio. I used to be one back in the 80s, myself. Is this “meme” thing that consists of a list of facts about one’s self a “meme” like the meaning you link to on wikipedia? I thought a meme was a kind of cultural concept that morphs and changes.

Don’t get me wrong, readers of the blog, I think these lists are fun, and I have participated in some, too–just last week I listed every kind of thing I ever knitted, ’cause someone else did on her blog. I just wonder how they got to be called “memes,” and I am not in the hip blog culture ingrained enough to know.

I enjoyed your “100 Things” as well! I wonder if you meant to be so apparently transparent, yet so mysterious at the same time!

Silly me, I assumed that “meme” came from the French “same,” in that all participants do the same thing, or else that it was “mee-mee” and referred to the slightly narcissistic (but in a good way!) nature of the whole thing.

I wonder if Winter is your favorite season so you feel “ok” about sitting and knitting all night. I know I feel kinda guilty when it’s wonderful outside and I am plopped inside contentedly knitting on some project I just have to get done!

Like Suna, I am a trained (but not practicing) linguist, and I enjoy your blog but rarely comment. But I wanted to support Suna, and say that this is a questionable use of the word “meme”. And thank Kim for the informative link. After reading the Wikipedia article, I can’t even really think how the word “meme” could be extended to the usage here. It’s really just a list, right? Lists are fun! Let’s just call them lists!

Not to hijack Grumperina’s blog, but I believe these games and lists and such came to be called meme’s because, like the examples Dawkins sites of “catch-phrases, beliefs, clothes fashions”, these blog ‘toys’ are passed from person to person in waves and integrate themselves into blog culture. I’d say they are very like catch-phrases in particular. The list ones are ways of organizing information that self-replicate by diffusion across the blogs of those who read each other – I’d say that matches the definition of meme pretty well, actually.

you know, i’d never been tagged for a meme before and thought it would be fun, but by the end i was already tired of blabbing about myself. it’s harder than it looks! it is kind of cool to learn random things about the bloggers you regularly read, though, so i guess in that sense the memes aren’t so bad.

looking forward to seeing more of your fir cone scarf – having just put a big lace stole design project to bed, i’ve got lace on the brain and love seeing what everyone else is working on! ~gabriella